China! Where My Photography Journey Began
- Marzio Callegari
- Dec 8, 2025
- 7 min read
One silly mistake cost me four years of work and thousands of photos and videos — but I gained something unexpected!
This is where my photography journey began — not in the darkroom in college, not while filming in nightclubs, or studying at university, but with an application I thought was a scam.
Even though I’ve seen so many places — and still have so much more to see — I still can’t have a conversation about travel without bringing up China because of how much it shaped my photography and videography journey. I’m sure many people, especially those in my circle, find it annoying. But I had such a profound experience: teaching, traveling, being hospitalised, being put into situations where I had no choice but to learn to communicate. It not only stayed with me — it changed aspects of who I am to this day.
In terms of photography, it was everything! I learned the trials and tribulations of photography, made mistakes that cost me four years’ worth of photos, and gained experiences and habits that I’ll always carry with me.
I feel I want to talk about some of these things so that: a) the people — if any — reading this can avoid making the same mistakes, and to share the most helpful things I learned to get the shots I loved.
It’s important to mention this is just my experience and might not suit everyone. After all, looking back, some of the things I did were quite stupid.
A Forgotten Application and a Little Risk Led to an Adventure
In 2015, after being diagnosed with a serious autoimmune condition, my life became stale. I had failed my postgrad degree, been fired from a decent-paying job, and was living on a blow-up bed at my friend’s house — all due to illness.
One boring morning, I received an email saying my application had been successful. Apparently, I had applied for a teaching job in China, though I didn’t remember doing it. It almost felt like a scam, but something told me to go for it. I took a loan from my stepdad to buy a computer, a Canon 70D with a nifty fifty and a cheap Tamron telephoto lens, and a flight. Within two months, I was on a flight to China with four random people.
I didn’t know this trip would open so many doors: photography, teaching, illustration, learning new languages, and eventually a master’s degree. I made sure I had the gear I needed and one month’s worth of funds. Stupidly — or maybe because I was young and naïve — I didn’t account for how serious my condition could get. Either way, the risk broke the stale routine and gave me my passion for education, video, photography, and art.
Almost like fate, I was assigned a teaching assistant who was a good photographer and introduced me to people, events, and places to shoot.
Take a Risk
What’s the biggest risk you have ever taken? I can’t put one first, but among them was risking my health for happiness.
Two weeks after I arrived, I was admitted to hospital for three weeks. All I could think about was how much I wanted to explore the city and take photos and videos of everything. My doctors, boss, and friends advised me to return home due to the severity of my condition. I considered it seriously but ultimately refused. I was afraid — but I was more afraid of going back to doing nothing. At least this way, I had doctors, medication, a good-paying job, and I was living an adventure.
I would get admitted several more times over the next four years and nearly die — but hey, I’m here today! And now I have the confidence to easily integrate into other cultures, language barriers and all.
Early Bird Catches the Photo
If you’re feeling uninspired, go out with your camera before sunrise.
The day after I was discharged, I woke up at 5 a.m. and went hunting with an itchy trigger finger. Being one of the first people out in the city made me feel clear-headed. The emptiness made the few things I saw stand out more as subjects because there were fewer distractions. I wandered around the local football stadium (which was always open to the public) and found a man who seemed content taking a stroll, just like me.
This was the first time I ever asked a stranger for a portrait! Though it’s not my best, at the time it felt like a well-deserved reward for my patience.
The first benefit of a 5 a.m. shoot: it’s quiet and serene, which helped me let go of the anxiety I had about photographing people.
After this, I saw the largest view of the sun I had ever seen. Shouguang, China can get very polluted — like a thick fog you feel in your throat — but it makes the sunrise vivid and strangely beautiful, like a giant peach painted in acrylics. This showed me another benefit: you get to see the sun rise.
Later, I saw two older gentlemen practicing tai chi in the local park and a guard walking laps of the stadium.
I realised that people who are out so early in the morning usually have clear intentions — exercise, going to work, walking their dog — which makes them fantastic subjects, especially when the city is otherwise empty.
This reel is made up of the images and videos I took on my 70D that morning. Despite studying media for three years at college and three years at university, the quality was dreadful and shaky. I didn’t have stabilisation, a tripod, or much real field experience. Still, I get a warm feeling every time I watch it.
No Plan + Bad Photography = Great Photo
It’s easy to believe great photographers always create their shots like an orchestrated symphony of position, lighting, and timing. And I’m sure many do.
Personally — I look for sincerity. In my experience, you can’t really orchestrate a sincere moment with photography. You either capture a genuine moment that looks great, or you create a great photo that isn’t fully genuine. Both approaches are valid, depending on your intention.
You can wait for the perfect moment to capture a sunset, but capturing the silhouette of a bird in front of that sun can hardly be planned. Sure, you could always edit it in or out — but again, it comes down to intention and preference.
Almost all my best or favourite photos happened by accident — unplanned, and sometimes a little blurry.
These were my first and what I still consider my best portraits. In each one, the subject is blurry — purely by accident, due to my inexperience. But for some reason I can’t quite describe, the blurriness adds to the photo rather than ruins it.
In photos 1 & 2, the taxi driver and the books are in focus, defining their work with clarity, even though many would consider the people the main subjects. In photo 3, the man with his back to the camera is focused, while the men smiling at the camera are out of focus — which feels, in a way, like an intentional juxtaposition.
Of course, yes, I’d love to see a version where the people are better focused, but the accident evokes emotion. At the end of a shoot, if I feel something from the photos, then I’m fulfilled.
And as a travel photographer and videographer, your images and footage are often quick — they won’t always come out exactly how you planned, you'll have blurry faces, uneven horizons, and things where you didn't notice them, thats the beauty!
How Photography Broke My Spirit (and How I Fixed It)
Over those four years, I took amazing photos — from early mornings and late nights, climbing to the top of Tai Shan (China’s tallest mountain), and trips to national parks and Hong Kong. With today’s technology and copies of the raw files, it’s possible to fix many imperfections... if I had kept them.
Stupidly, I backed up my raw files on a USB stick and the same hard drive I used for teaching. My USB snapped after heavy use, and my hard drive was knocked onto the floor during a lesson. My life’s work — photos, videos, lesson plans, PowerPoints, illustrations, a sound library — gone, because I was careless with equipment and backups.
Luckily, I had edited and exported some favourite photos as JPEGs onto my computer.
After this, I put down the camera for a long while. I didn’t take a photo or video for nearly two years. I sold my camera and lenses and called it quits. It felt like burnout: you put all your passion into something and then, in one moment, it was all for nothing. That is until you start seeing other people taking photos, and you feel a form of envy, almost like your camera started dating your best friend. And I can confirm that there’s nothing better than getting a new camera to make her jealous — and to bring that inspiration back to life… this time she’s a Sony ;).
Summary
A short break meant that camera technology had advanced massively, and changing brands also meant I had a whole new ecosystem to explore.
In a Nutshell, this journey taught me several things:
First and foremost, invest in storage; backups — and backups of your backups — are never a waste of money. In fact, they’re imperative, especially if you’re moving around a lot.
Take a calculated risk; maybe don’t risk your life, but sometimes a risk doesn’t make sense to others, yet it does to you.
When you visit a new place, try and get up early to explore it — especially in busy cities; you get to see them in a unique way.
Blurry and unplanned is okay!
Take your time; sometimes you need a long break to find your passion for something again. It’s not a race!
If you've made it this far, I sincerely thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed reminiscing.
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